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Professor's invisible prompt trap catches 32 students cheating on their midterm with AI (www.techspot.com)
submitted 21 hours ago by Nobody_Special@piefed.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
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In an online discussion post, Alcorn State University history professor Dr. Jason Gibson posed a question that represented part of his students' midterm. It was about the...

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[-] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 108 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Here saved you a click and and badly written "article"

In an online discussion post, Alcorn State University history professor Dr. Jason Gibson posed a question that represented part of his students' midterm. It was about the Industrial Revolution, but knowing how many students now rely solely on artificial intelligence for their answers, he secretly embedded instructions telling the AI to include information about Madagascar in a way that makes no sense.

Being written in white text meant the instructions were invisible.

(...)

Had any of these cheaters even bothered to check what the AI had generated, they'd likely have noticed the strange references to the island country constantly appearing in an essay about the Industrial Revolution.

[-] BillyClark@piefed.social 32 points 13 hours ago

I don't know that the article was all that badly written, but you missed a couple of points that I'd call essential:

One, it was 32 students out of 35 total who used AI and then didn't even bother to check it, so only 3 students even made an honest attempt in the entire semester.

Two, the professor told the students that they were allowed to contest the grade if they wanted, and only 2 out of the 32 students even tried to contest it.

[-] jballs@sh.itjust.works 11 points 9 hours ago

Also later in the article it mentions another professor who estimated that only 2 of their 86 students didn't use AI to cheat.

Like, what are we even doing any more?

[-] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 7 hours ago

I don't know that the article was all that badly written

Really? I thought it read like a Facebook post.

Regarding specific numbers, I guess they add context to severity, but as far as the headline and snippet of the OP my short snippet answers the bullshit clickbait, which was my intention.

this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
494 points (98.8% liked)

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